This is probably the funniest Seven Questions In Heaven yet, kids! Today we're chatting with the guys from Flannel Mouth about Buckcherry, religion, nutsicles, Selena Gomez, and the Thanksgiving Super Bowl.
Describe your music for our readers who may not be familiar with you.
Luke: I would say it sounds like music, I guess.
Tyler: It sounds put together very much of the rock music variety, however alternative, but not like... you know what, we probably do sound a lot like Buckcherry or Five Finger Death Punch, I think.
Ryan: People are going to see this and want to hear that.
Luke: Well that's good. There's a lot of Buckcherry fans.
Tyler: That's exactly right! There are a lot of them. In fact, every girl I've ever met is a Buckcherry fan. That's just science, dude.
Ryan: Right.
Tyler: No, for starters or familiarity's sake, we did cover a Murder by Death song for 2012's Thanksgiving and that kind of leads one in the right direction, I guess. Like not avant-garde, but definitely different.
Luke: Like hippopotamus screaming ice seagulls.
Tyler: How long have you been sitting there thinking about that?
Luke: It kind of just started with "hippopotamus" and it all just slipped out.
Who are your musical influences and idols?
Luke: I like to worship Ra.
Tyler: What was it?
Luke: Ra. Like Set. Like Set and Ra.
Tyler: What?
Ryan: What are you talking about?
Luke: Set and Ra, man!
Tyler: Like Ra... men noodles?
Luke: Like Ra! Like Set! Set and Ra? Like the gods of Egypt.
Ryan: Oh!
Luke: Jesus Christ, dude. Egypt!
Ryan: I was gonna say that, but I don't know who Set is.
Luke: Set and Ra!
Ryan: I know who Ra is.
Luke: That's the bad one.
Ryan: That's why I didn't know him.
Tyler: I only know good guys.
Luke: He's like the main one, like the one you see all the time. Ra is like the eagle.
Tyler: ...and those are our musical influences and idols. Idols, at least.
Ryan: Our influences are everything.
Tyler: Yeah, we take from diesel trucks, microwave dings, that sort of thing.
Luke: And there's stuff we listen to we don't use as influences, either. I think we just like to listen to things and absorb it, and just kinda let it run.
What was the first album, cassette, or CD you bought with your own money?
Zach: Lord Of The Rings soundtrack.
Luke: I wish I could say it was Baha Men, but it's not.
Tyler: That's early 00's; that makes sense.
Luke: It was probably Millenium. Backstreet Boys.
Tyler: Nice! I think mine was something similar. Nope, it was the Kid Rock CD with "Bawitdaba," although I did steal Nelly's Country Grammar before that.
Luke: Did that have what's-his-name on it?
Tyler: You mean "Over And Over Again?" With Tim McGraw? No, that wasn't that CD. Thank goodness.
What was the strangest gig you've ever played? What's the first thing you look for when you hit a new town?
Ryan: The only one that's ever stuck to my head is the beach one.
Tyler: The beach party! Ah, yes, time to finally release that information. Haven't done that in a while.
Ryan: Yeah, that one.
Tyler: So we went to play a birthday party for a friend who was turning twenty. Notice I said twenty and not twenty-one. They were having a big ol' shindig with probably about a hundred people or so on the beach with a huge fire. We tore apart a duck blind to make a stage, and we even made a drum riser out of it.
Ryan: It looked really badass.
Tyler: We brought our own equipment, our PA, and plugged everything -- the board, the heads, the pedals -- every single thing was plugged into a single power strip, which was plugged into an extension cord, which ran up the beach and up across the street, where it's repeatedly getting run over by partygoers and people driving through the neighborhood, and then it plugged into another extension cord, which plugged into the shadiest shed ever. The extension cord was so tight it was even pulling the socket out of the wall a bit. What were we thinking? So we played the whole set including "Tubthumping" by Chumbawumba.
Ryan: Did we play that?
Tyler: No, we practiced it and wanted to, but I think we ended up playing "[The] Downfall of Us All."
Ryan: No! We played "Since U Been Gone!"
Luke: Yes we did! Holy shit!
Tyler: We're really, really good! It was already a really weird show and whatever until the cops came! We finished our set, were having a great time, were talking to some people, and had no idea the cops had come until someone ran down the cliffy-beach-hill-thing, tripped over one of our extension cords, screaming, "FIVE-OH!" like it's a '90s party movie or something.
Luke: And everyone scatters because they're underage, and people tried to swim away from the police! There was another party about a half a mile down where some made it to, but that got busted too! And all their phones were ruined.
Tyler: That's definitely the strangest show we've ever played.
Ryan: I wouldn't say "strangest."
Tyler: What was the strangest?!
Luke: Dude, that was pretty strange.
Ryan: It was just fun!
Luke: Oh my god -- Leah's!
Ryan: That was the one I was talking about!
Tyler: Yes! Let's talk about Leah's. Leah's in Kewanee, Illinois. Our song, "The .22" was brand new and we played it twice. We opened with it, and we got our set interrupted so someone could come to the mic and say "I heard this band was coming, or whatever, but I wasn't expecting THAT." That was one of the nicest sweetest things ever.
Luke: And then there were three fights!
Tyler: It was the dude's going-away party and that dude got beat up twice, and got our shirt ripped off of his body.
Luke: That was a strange one. What was the second part of the question?
Tyler: It was "What's the first thing you look for when you get into a new town?" Taco Bell, maybe? That's my answer.
Luke: We look for... hookers. Blow. Liquor stores. Cheap booze. A gas station.
Tyler: Cheap booze is always good. Record stores, video game stores, or a bathroom.
Luke: We always like it when a man in a cape is riding a moped.
Tyler: If a man in a speedo and cape is driving a moped through East Madison, Wisconsin, that's what we usually look for when we go there.
What is your current favorite guilty pleasure?
Tyler: Buckcherry.
Ryan: Miley Cyrus.
Tyler: Miley Cyrus! Dude, I'll second that so hard. I love that song, dude. I love "Wrecking Ball."
Luke: I will not second that. It's just because she's naked in the video.
Tyler: No! I actually can't stand the video. It's the song I really like.
Luke: My secret guilty pleasure is Selena Gomez, so suck it.
Tyler: There you go.
Ryan: She's way better, though.
Tyler: Did you see her Thanksgiving performance? It was so boring!
Luke: But that's because she's lounge! She's not a pop singer, she's a lounge singer.
Tyler: Yeah, she should be, but not at the Thanksgiving Super Bowl.
Ryan: The Thanksgiving Super Bowl!
Luke: Selena Gomez. I've never listened to a song, but she's my guilty pleasure.
If they named an ice cream flavor after you, what would be the name and why?
Ryan: I was wondering what the taste was going to be and that'd be like disgusting.
Tyler: Well you're Hawaiian, so you've at least got that pineapple. You could do a pineapple spice and that's about it.
Ryan: How about pineapple mango?
Luke: Zach would taste like tequila and he would be called...
Zach: The dumpsicle.
Tyler: Dumb or dub?
Zach: Dump.
Luke: I feel like I would have nuts in it. It would be a nutsicle.
Tyler: Dude, I'm so boring. I think I'm going to go with vanilla.
Luke: That's a good one! I feel like that could almost like already be a flavor.
Tyler: Like vanilla bean. I'm not even French vanilla. It's just... vanilla.
Zach: We'll call it "'niller."
Luke: I feel like I'd be more frozen yogurt. I'm trying to watch my figure.
Zach: You're like a tapioca.
Tyler: Tapioca! There you go. Fish eggs. Tapioca fish pudding. Tapioca fish pudding ice cream!
Ryan: Ew! That's gross!
Luke: With anchovie heads! That's the whole name: Tapioca Fish Pudding Heads Ice Cream.
Tyler: That's the worst.
Final question: You're the opening act of a music festival. You can get any five artists, living or dead, to perform on the bill with you. Which five do you choose and what song do you all perform as the final jam?
Luke: Frank Zappa!
Ryan: William Shatner.
Tyler: That's a good one, because he's like living and dead. That's a good answer. Pink Floyd would be cool.
Ryan: I think they would drag it out, though.
Tyler: We'll just make them open and they'll be the only band that plays.
Zach: I think Randolph Scott.
Tyler: Well I'm going to with F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Luke: He was just a composer!
Tyler: He composed "The Star-Spangled Banner" and I think we should open every American sporting event with that song.
Luke: I want to see F. Scott Fitzgerald and Jimi Hendrix together on stage.
Ryan: That would've been good! He'd be like, "...what? What have you done?"
Tyler: Like "Those are the notes I wrote, but you've twisted and bent them all over the page, so I'm kind of mostly offended." And let's face it -- F. Scott Fitzgerald was probably racist. It was just part of the times, you know?
Luke: So it's Jimi Hendrix, Bill Shatner, Frank Zappa, we've got Pink Floyd. Who else have we got?
Tyler: Chingy, dude!
Luke: That would round it out.
Tyler: Right! And what would be the closing jam?
Luke: Well the obvious choice is "The Star-Spangled Banner."
Ryan: Like everyone on the bill must play it.
Tyler: Or we could end it with a war! The final jam will be riddled in cannon fodder and muskets and people killing each other.
Ryan: Perfect. That'll do it.
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